Community Gateway Clerical Officer

at  Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

Across Tameside and Glossop we are working towards integrating our services through the Care Together programme. The establishment of a community Health and Social Care Single Point of Contact is a key component of this programme. We are currently looking for an enthusiastic individual to join our Community Gateway Service. The Gateway receives referrals to the District Nursing Neighbourhood teams, the Integrated Urgent Care Team and the Adult Social Care Neighbourhood teams.
The Community Gateway aims to create a more streamlined and efficient service which will improve service quality, provide a consistent response to all referrers and reduce the need for multiple assessments across community teams. The integrated service also ensures that new and existing users of our services have access to urgent and non-urgent health and social care interventions to enable people to remain in the community or to return home as soon as possible from necessary hospital admissions. In addition the Community Gateway Service provides information and re-direction to alternative services within the community. What is a Community Gateway Clerical Officer?
This is the person at the end of the phone when a member of the public requires access to urgent and non-urgent health and social care interventions. They will gather as much information as possible, they will assess situations, and provide clear, correct advice, whilst remaining calm under pressure. Do you think you have what it takes to be that person in times of need? We are looking for individuals who have a passion for providing excellent customer service.
You will also have a flair for telephone communication and enjoy working in a fast paced environment. Applicants should be excellent communicators with good telephone skills as a large percentage of this role will be spent liaising with service users, patients and Healthcare Professionals via the telephone. Applicants must also have the ability to deal with the general public on a daily basis and have a positive approach to customer care. Experience of dealing with vulnerable people would be beneficial.
In addition applicants should have a good standard of typing and IT skills and be able to work on their own initiative and as part of a team. Experience of Adult Social Care and Health would be desirable. This post is a designated customerservice role under the fluency duty and requires a specified level of spoken English in the person specification. The majority of the role will involve liaising with patients, service users and Health Professionals via the telephone.
You will receive regular supervision, support and training to ensure your continuous professional and personal development. The designated person will deal directly with routine queries as a first point of contact for members of the public and agencies with community health or social queries.The post holder will provide simple information and advice to members of the public and other agencies in order to help resolve their queries. Using agreed algorithms, they will be able to re-direct members of the public and agencies to the appropriate team or department with the Neighbourhood.The post holder will be undertaking tasks requiring strict confidentiality and they will be expected to use the patient administration system to book patient appointments over the telephone. Any necessary information or documentation must be completed on EMIS and/or Liquid Logic to allow for referrals to be made.
The post holder will be familiar with a full range of clerical tasks and be able to undertake specific duties. The post holder will have a variety of IT skills to be able to use spreadsheets, word processing, e-mails and basic keyboard skills as this service is paperlite. Data inputting and attention to detail is also key for this role. Good communication skills are required to deal with enquiries to the department by telephone or email.
It is important that the post holder is able to communicate effectively and maintain good relationships with patients, service users, medical professionals and other departments across the healthcare and social care setting and other outside agencies. As the Community Gateway is a call centre environment, the post holder must have an awareness of communication difficulties i.e. language, hearing and sight impaired service users and be able to work effectively with these. They must also be able to have the ability to handle occasional aggressive/upset/distressed callers.
A requirement of the role is to be able to organise and plan own day to day workload or activities in order to meet the demands of the job role. The post holder is expected to use their initiative where required, but will work within set guidance/algorithms and will have supervision readily available. Team working is key as well as being able to work to tight deadlines. Due to the nature of the work, the Community Gateway Clerical Officer must be able to prioritise, as frequent interruptions can be expected from the public and professionals.
The Community Gateway Clerical Officer is the link between the health care/social care professional and patients/service users who utilise the services within community healthcare. The role of Clerical Officer is not to give medical advice but to refer on to a health care professional or relevant service. If you are successful you will be given the opportunity to study towards a Customer Service or Business Administration qualification which will be paid for by the Trust

Please refer the Job description for details